Sunday, November 1, 2015

Asylum
of Terror is located in Winder, Georgia.
We will begin by addressing the fact that on the night we went they
started over thirty minutes late and claimed the reason was that they were
still putting actors into make-up, however based upon what we saw inside the
make-up should not have been the reason for being late opening unless the
actors weren't at the haunt on time in the first place. Also, they began the haunt season by saying
that they would delay opening a week in order to give their best possible show,
however there was little that we saw which indicated what they had done to be
so much more prepared after a delay that was intended to make it the best that
it could be. With that said we will move
on from it to what we encountered with the attraction.

After
purchasing our tickets and entering the que line we were trying to talk while
we waited, but there was so much screaming and loud banging it was not easy to
do. It was as though we were standing in
the middle of a very poor production of the musical Stomp.

The
most detailed portions of the haunt are the sign at the entrance and the very
first room. Beyond those rooms the walls
are pretty plain and simple with a few alterations, most frequently holes in
the walls. We noticed that the walls appeared
to be white in the majority of spaces, which is unusual for a haunt (though not
unacceptable).

The
majority of the actors were portraying patients in an asylum. When we think of asylum patients we think of
them talking complete and utter gibberish, with wild eyes, and unpredictable
natures. The patients at this asylum
seemed to all be screamers with no rhyme or reason behind the continuous
screaming. If you know us then you know
how we feel about actor versatility. The
crew which is placed within a haunt should be ready with a multitude of things
in their arsenal for how they can portray their characters, if they can only
scream that is very limiting and highly predictable. There were a few actors who were not screaming,
however there were other actor related challenges within this haunt. During the final stretch we almost had one of
our group hit in the face with the chainsaw as they rounded a corner (I know,
because it was me). As we exited a woman
in our group stated, "Was that all?" and then let us know that in one
section an actor actually hit her in the breast. Both of those incidents were accidents, but
they are avoidable if the actors are well trained in what could occur within
their space and how to be aware of their proximity to patrons.

We
rated Asylum of Terror with 2 severed heads out of a possible five, and were
hesitant to do so. They have some high
points which we can acknowledge (though not without giving away too much
information and ruining it for others), but they definitely have room for
growth. If they have acquired this space
on a permanent basis and will be working with it over the year to improve it
and spend time training their actors, then we can see them improving in the
future and don't want to discourage anyone from giving them a try. One thing that we did notice was that the
younger girls (primarily teens and pre-teens) seemed to get the most out of
this particular haunt.